The invention is directed to a door or lid for an appliance, such as a clothes washer or clothes dryer, which is pivoted or hinged to a washer or dryer cabinet adjacent an opening through which clothing can be loaded or unloaded in a conventional top-loading or front-loading fashion. Conventionally, such doors or lids have been made of metal without or with a glass panel, and in the latter case the interior compartment of the washer or dryer and the contents therein could be viewed without opening the door or lid.
Conventional washer and/or dryer lids or doors have for years been constructed from metallic material, generally sheet metal, which is generally cut into a number of pieces which are eventually assembled to each other. When the washer or dryer door or lid includes a tempered glass panel, fabrication and assembly of the various components, including the necessity of a door seal, become complex, cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,420 granted on Sep. 22, 1987 and assigned to Caterpillar, Inc. makes reference to the desirability of injection-molding plastic articles having a variety of complex shaped and sizes including doors of vehicles, such as cab doors, which were originally manufactured by utilizing metal which is appropriately fabricated to form a door in which a window can be movable or movably mounted. Most often the window or glazing is floated in a soft gasket channel isolated from the frame to reduce shock-loads and thermal stresses induced by varying co-efficients of thermal expansion between the metal frame and the glazing or glass panel. The process disclosed in the latter patent is believed workable because the window panes in all cases are sheets of transparent plastic material, such as polycarbonate and acrylic, with the preferred material being a polycarbonate having a silicone hard coat applied thereto to make the polycarbonate glazing or window pane more scratch-resistant. The silicone hard coat on the peripheral edge is removed by sanding or grinding to assure good bonding between the eventually molded frame and the polycarbonate glazing.
With the advent of excellent molding qualities of modern plastic materials, an effort was made through efforts of the assignee of the present application to form a door by molding a frame, border or encapsulation of polymeric/copolymeric synthetic plastic material about the periphery of a transparent piece of tempered glass. The effort involved manufacturing a so-called xe2x80x9cbrownxe2x80x9d appliance door, namely, a range oven door which in use is subject to relatively high temperatures. The latter is to be distinguishable from doors or lids for xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d appliances, such as washers or dryers, which are not subject to such relatively high temperatures. However, the commonality of doors/lids for both xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cbrownxe2x80x9d appliances was the past utilization of metal, particularly sheet metal frames made of many different pieces requiring separate formation, fabrication and assembly. Various pieces of such door frames are individually manufactured and are eventually assembled to a tempered piece of glass to provide a relatively limited viewing panel or window, and more often than not separate metallic connecting fasteners pass through opposing flanges of opposing frame members to form a unitized frame or shell bordering the glass panel. All of the latter is extremely time-consuming and costly.
Application Ser. No. 09/277,756 filed on Mar. 29, 1999 in the name of Craig Bienick discloses one solution toward manufacturing a relatively large peripherally encapsulated range oven door by placing tempered glass between heated mold bodies and depositing sheet molding compound (SMC) or bulk molding compound (BMC) about a periphery of an associated annular or peripheral mold cavity or chamber and outboard of a substantially continuous peripheral edge of the piece of tempered glass. The mold bodies are then progressively closed to thereby create compression forces upon the SMC/BMC which extrude the thermal-setting polymeric material into the annular chamber and into complete peripheral edge encapsulation of the continuous peripheral edge of the tempered glass, including opposite face surfaces and a peripheral edge surface therebetween. After curing the thermal-setting polymeric material under such heat and pressure, the mold bodies are opened and the peripherally encapsulated product (oven door) is removed.
The latter application describes the conventional practice of encapsulating a peripheral edge of glass through injection molding to manufacture lens mounts, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,266,169 in the name of Chester W. Crumrine issued on Dec. 16, 1941. A lens element is clamped between two centering plungers which hold a lens with a peripheral edge thereof projecting into an annular cavity into which hot plastic is injected under pressure, cools and is subsequently removed from the mold cavity in the form of a lens mount.
Similar injection molding to form peripherally encapsulated pieces of glass are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,559,860 and 3,971,841 issued to Howard G. Fay and Leon Rubinstein, respectively, on Jul. 10, 1951 and Jul. 27, 1966, respectively. Each of these two patents also relate to lens systems for photographic apparatus.
Larger pieces of glass have also been similarly provided with an injection-molded rim, encapsulation or frame, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,626,185; 4,695,420 and 5,676,894 in the respective names of Bernard Monnet; Charles E. Grawey et al. and Paul Specht, which issued respectively on Dec. 2, 1986; Sep. 2, 1987 and Oct. 14, 1997. Such larger encapsulated glass structures are typically used as curved automobile glass panels, printed circuit boards, window panes, structural paneling and the like. The assignee of the present invention has expertise in the injection-molding encapsulation of tempered glass which is used primarily for shelving, particularly for refrigerators, as is evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,273,354; 5,362,145; 5,403,084; 5,429,433; 5,441,338 and 5,454,638 issued respectively on Dec. 28, 1993; Nov. 8, 1994; Apr. 4, 1995; Jul. 4, 1995; Aug. 15, 1995 and Oct. 3, 1995, all assigned to the assignee of the present application.
Typically, such encapsulated shelves are manufactured in an injection mold which has been commonplace over the years and most typically includes two metallic cantilevered shelf brackets which are unitized to a piece of tempered glass by the injection-molded encapsulation, border or frame.
All of the latter products have no relevance to doors or lids, particularly utilized in conjunction with xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d appliances, such as dryers and washers, which possess unique requirements either through consumer demand or by state or federal law. For example, typical washer or dryer doors or lids include one or both of use instructions or safety precautions which typically are printed on the inside of such doors. When such doors or lids are constructed from metal and are painted and dried, it is relatively simple to print instructions and/or safety rules or precautions on the inner surfaces thereof, particularly when such doors or lids are devoid of a viewing opening closed by a relatively small panel of glass. Furthermore, since such doors/lids are conventionally manufactured from metallic material, securing hinges thereto is also relatively straightforward. However, numerous problems are presented when one attempts to manufacture relatively inexpensively, repetitiously and aesthetically xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d appliance doors or lids which are formed substantially entirely of a panel of tempered glass having a minor border of injection-molded material, while at the same time providing a viewing area which is less than the entire area of the piece of tempered glass, yet is sufficiently large to readily view clothing within the appliance compartment. The problem is compounded by the manner in which the door/lid can be attached to the associated dryer/washer and further compounded by applying on an inner surface thereof appropriate use instructions and/or personal safety rules which though viewable on the inside surface must necessarily not be viewable from the outside in order to create and maintain aesthetic appearances.
The present invention is specifically directed to a novel and unobvious door or lid for a xe2x80x9cwhitexe2x80x9d appliance, such as a washer or dryer, which is made from a relatively large piece of tempered glass having a periphery substantially the same size as and conforming to the associated panel of the washer or dryer to which it is hingedly attached. For example, if the door/lid is for a top-loading or a front-loading washer or dryer, its peripheral outline, area and size corresponds to the respective upper wall and front peripheral outline, area and size with each wall having an opening through which clothing is introduced into or removed from the appliance. Therefore, with such a door attached to the appliance, the relatively narrow frame of the door offers an aesthetic xe2x80x9cborderxe2x80x9d to the peripheral edges of the top-loading or front-loading dryer/washer panels or walls.
Prior to injection molding the border, frame or encapsulation about the periphery of the tempered glass panel, the eventual inner or inside surface thereof is subjected to at least one and preferably two screen printing operations by which a heat-fusible printing medium/media is applied and adhered to the tempered glass panel inner surface. A first coating of the printing medium may be, for example, substantially opaque and cover or coat a peripheral portion of the inner surface of the tempered glass panel from the peripheral edge of the latter inboard to a relatively large unprinted area forming the view area of the door. This first coating is then subject to high temperatures (800xc2x0 F.) fusion followed by cooling and the application over the first peripheral printed area of a second print medium which preferably is either another solid coating or a coating of thin closely spaced crossing lines typical of a window or door insect screen which, after fusing and cooling, imparts from the outside a similar screen-like appearance which is extremely aesthetic, though the second printing can simply be a second complete overcoat of the printing medium upon the first printing medium
After the first single medium or both printing media have fused and cooled, the latter provide an inner surface upon which use instructions and/or personal safety rules can be printed, yet when printed thereupon, the same are not viewable or discernable when viewed from the outer surface of the door. For example, appropriate xe2x80x9cWASHER INSTRUCTIONSxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cPERSONAL SAFETY RULESxe2x80x9d can be applied by screen printing a third printing medium upon the first printing medium, if a second printing medium is not applied thereupon, or upon the second printing medium after which the third printing medium (INSTRUCTIONS/RULES) are subject to fusion (800xc2x0 F.). The latter INSTRUCTIONS/RULES are appropriately applied to the inside of the door such that they are rendered upright and readable when the door is open, be it an upwardly opening door pivoting about a horizontal axis or a sidewise opening door pivoting or hinging about a vertical axis.
The door is also preferably connected by hinges, one in each corner, which are connected to holes formed in corners of the tempered glass panel which exteriorly are closed or covered by conventional fusible material which is of a color matching the border and the first and/or second screen-printing coatings or printings thereby blending with the latter. Preferably, there are two hinge holes formed in each corner of the tempered glass panel which are themselves each covered with matching fused bonding material, thus effecting an overall aesthetic door through a viewing window of which clothing is observable while only upon opening the door are appropriate INSTRUCTIONS/SAFETY RULES discernible and readable.
With the above and other objects in view that will hereinafter appear, the nature of the invention will be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description, the appended claims and the several views illustrated in the accompanying drawings.